The Hidden Risks: Internal Failures in Security by Design 

When we think about cybersecurity breaches, external attackers often come to mind—hackers, malware, and cybercriminals targeting organizations from the outside. However, breaches can also stem from within, caused by internal failures in processes, quality assurance, and oversight. These types of failures can be just as damaging, eroding trust and reliability in an organization’s products and services. 

The CrowdStrike Incident: A Wake-Up Call 

The recent CrowdStrike incident serves as a prime example of how internal failures can lead to widespread disruption. The event was not a traditional cyberattack but rather a failure in reliability and trust, exposing significant gaps in the company’s quality assurance (QA) processes. The CEO of CrowdStrike openly admitted that a lack of standardized QA processes led to the failure, highlighting the critical importance of internal safeguards. 

As Wabbi’s CEO Brittany Greenfield discussed on the Strategy Next podcast, “It was a breach on so many levels. It was a breach of reliability, it was a breach of trust.” This incident underscores the reality that cybersecurity is not just about defending against external threats but also about ensuring that internal systems, processes, and checks are robust enough to prevent self-inflicted damage. 

The Role of Quality Assurance in Cybersecurity 

Quality assurance is often viewed as a technical checkpoint, but in cybersecurity, it is a foundational pillar of trust. Without rigorous QA processes, software vulnerabilities, configuration errors, and operational failures can slip through the cracks, leading to security incidents that damage an organization’s credibility and customer relationships. 

Greenfield further emphasized, “Your products—are only as good as your processes in delivering them to the customer to deliver on the customer promise.” This insight applies across industries: no matter the product or service, organizations must ensure their internal processes support reliability and security. 

Building Resilient Internal Processes 

Here are four essential internal DevSecOps processes to keep security seamlessly integrated into development: 

• Risk-Based Vulnerability Management – Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. Establish a process to triage, prioritize, and remediate security issues based on risk, business impact, and exploitability—not just severity scores. 

• Automated Security Gates – Security should be part of the pipeline, not a blocker. Implement automated checks (SAST, DAST, SCA, IaC scanning) to catch issues early, enforce policies, and ensure secure code moves forward without friction. 

• Developer-Centric Security Training – Security isn’t just the security team’s job. Make secure coding best practices part of the engineering culture with ongoing, practical, and engaging training tailored to developers. 

• Continuous Compliance – Security and compliance shouldn’t be a scramble before an audit. Automate evidence collection, track security controls in real time, and ensure compliance is continuously met—not just when someone asks.

   

Building Security by Design in the SDLC 

Cybersecurity is more than just an external battle against hackers—it is also an internal commitment to reliability, trust, and process excellence. The CrowdStrike incident is a reminder that organizations must not only defend against external threats but also look inward to strengthen the foundations that keep their operations secure and trustworthy. 

By building security by design into the SDLC, businesses can protect their reputation, ensure product integrity, and build lasting trust with customers. A strong cybersecurity strategy is not just about the technology—it’s about the processes that support it. 

Listen to Wabbi CEO & Founder Brittany discuss this and more on the podcast Strategy Next.